


Swipe Until It's Real

by DeeMoonSeo



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Exes, M/M, Not Beta Read, Reconciliation, Taeil has no clue how to set up a dating profile, friends to lovers (sort of), they're both whipped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 10:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17282363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeeMoonSeo/pseuds/DeeMoonSeo
Summary: “Okay, but can you maybe understand why the sentence -” Youngho glanced upward at the screen from it’s maintained distance  - “‘I’d rather enjoy long naps than long dates’ might not be the best thing to include in a dating app profile?”[Or, Youngho helps Taeil make a dating profile, which turns into a necessary wake-up call.]





	Swipe Until It's Real

**Author's Note:**

> Hi again! I hope you enjoy my second Johnil story! Please leave comments and kudos, if you do. They absolutely make my day.
> 
> Should you like this one, please check out my first Johnil fic, "One More Bite." I also have a LuWoo story, "Stay for the Closing Credits." Read and comment on them allllll!
> 
> Lastly, follow me on Twitter @DeeMoonSeo.
> 
> Okay, enjoy! *crosses fingers*

“Taeil.”

“I don’t see the issue here, Youngho.”

“ _Taeil_.”

“It’s the truth,” Taeil nearly squeaked defensively, reaching across Youngho’s torso in a vain attempt to grab his phone out of the towering man’s reach. It was no use. Youngho could keep anything out of Taeil’s way with very minimal effort. It was the chief benefit, Youngho often said, of having the longest limbs. “In case you forgot, you told me to be truthful.”

“Okay, but can you maybe understand why the sentence -” Youngho glanced upward at the screen from it’s maintained distance - “‘I’d rather enjoy long naps than long dates’ might not be the best thing to include in a dating app profile?”

Taeil flopped backwards against the couch cushions, his head landing on the squashy armrest while his legs rested on his best friend’s lap. “I barely want to do this. Don’t make me.”

Youngho tipped his head back in apparent shock. “Are we revising history now, or did _you_ forget that you asked me for help getting you set up?”

“Yeah, after you insisted -”

“Suggested,” Youngho corrected.

“-that I get on the stupid app in the first place. You and I both know this is a disaster waiting to happen.”

“You’re the one who said you were feeling lonely lately Also, I should point out that for someone who supposedly hates this, here you are, going along with it,” Youngho challenged. “And don’t pretend that you aren’t, because we both know that nobody makes Moon Taeil do anything that he doesn’t want to do. Besides, dating might be good for you. Then you wouldn't have to hang around me day in, day out.”

The silence that followed settled heavily around the pair in Youngho’s dimly lit living room. There was a part of Taeil that knew he should begin the search for love again - he and Jackson had ended their short-lived relationship just over a year ago - but there was a larger part of him that felt tethered in place. Something about acknowledging his desire for companionship felt oddly permanent, like he was closing some intangible door. Even though he knew that wasn’t exactly true, he couldn’t shake the feeling.

“Maybe,” Taeil muttered eventually as Youngho tapped at the screen.

“No maybes,” he challenged, sounding distant. “You deserve happiness, Tae. Stop blocking your blessings and open yourself up to something potentially great.”

“I’m plenty open. I go out all the time.”

“The store, hanging out with me, and community choir practice does not count as ‘going out.’”

“You don’t make the rules, Seo.”

“You know I’m right.” With a quick tap of his thumbs, Youngho replaced the offending sentence on the bio with a new one, then read it out loud. “‘I prefer a chill, intimate environment where I can get to know the person I’m spending time with.’ See? Already much better.”

Taeil sat up to accept his phone back, then looked at the his developing profile with a shake of his head. “So much PR involved.”

“Well, I’m glad my degree can be of use to you,” Youngho chuckled warmly.

“I doubt that after four years of school, your best contribution to society is ‘Ghostwriting Moon Taeil’s Datr profile.”

Youngho shrugged before propping his head up against the back of the sofa . “I’m not so sure. After culinary school, I’d say that your best contribution is our Wednesday dinners.”

“Oh! Speaking of which…”

Taeil let the sentence trail off as he speedily typed an addendum to his steadily lengthening bio. This was becoming far more involved than he had budgeted energy for. His original script - “I’m weird, but I’m cute. Text me’ - was short and sweet enough for his liking. When he read it to Youngho, the younger man vetoed his draft and demanded they workshop the profile together. Living in the same building made it harder for Taeil to come up with excuses to not visit Youngho’s place.

Not that he would ever really attempt to get out of such a request. As much as he loved naps and good food, his favorite thing in the world to do was spend time with his best friend. Which is why he made sure to let all potential Datr suitors know that Wednesday nights were strictly off limits, date-wise.

“What are you adding,” Youngho asked, craning his neck to see if he could catch a glimpse of what Taeil was typing.

Once Taeil was done, he read to Youngho, “Please note that I am unavailable on Wednesday nights for BFF time, no exceptions.”

When he peered over his phone, he found an exasperated looking Youngho with his palm outstretched expectantly. “I can’t believe how bad you are at this, Taeil.”

Affronted, Taeil surrendered the phone once more with a scoff. “I thought you’d be pleased that I would prioritize our time together!”

“First of all, your goal here isn’t to impress _me_ ,” Youngho said, making quick work of deleting the troublesome sentence. “You’re here to impress your future...whatever this person could be to you. And the whole point of creating a dating profile is to highlight your availability, not list your schedule conflicts. Also, mentioning that you’d rather be hanging out with someone else would be a red flag that’d I’d warn you against if I saw this on any other profile.”

Rather than argue, Taeil watched Youngho push his floppy hair back. The last time he had seen his hair this long was in undergrad. It was the thing that attracted him to Youngho first and most effectively...until he saw his smile. After that, he was a bit of a goner.

“Can you imagine us meeting on an app like this when we were dating,” Taeil mused quietly, barely loud enough for him to hear let alone someone sitting on the opposite side of the couch.

“Well, we didn’t exactly need an app,” Youngho responded almost as quietly, continuing to tinker with the profile. “We lived in the same dorm freshman year, shared the same friends, had two classes together...we had proximity on our side.”

Taeil smirked as he gently waded through some of their shared college memories. The did spend an awful lot of time running into each other - colliding, almost - before deciding to date. It had been a stellar year. _Well, it was nice_ , he thought silently. _Right before I fucked things up._

“Yeah, a fat load proximity did for us in the end, huh,” Taeil sighed. “It didn’t exactly work.”

At that, Youngho looked up from the phone, his eyes earnest. “ _I’d_ say it worked. Maybe not romantically, but we did meet, and we got to know each other well enough to remain in each other’s lives. We may not be _together_ together, but c'mon, we’re closer than some married couples, Tae. We’re in each other’s business far too much.” For emphasis, he waved Taeil’s phone as his evidence. They both laughed.

“Yeah, we are kind of stuck with each other now, huh?”

“I’d say so, Moon.” Taeil _loved_ when Youngho called him by his last name. There was something in how he said it, as if he meant to cocoon each letter with a blanket of affection. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, even if we didn’t exactly work out.”

Every once in a while they’d lapse into these vulnerable moments that would make Taeil uneasy if he were sharing them with anyone else. Now they made him feel human, more grounded. And while Taeil was getting far better at expressing himself, Youngho still reigned as the only person he could truly bare his soul to.

“Youngho, do you think we’d still be together if I had said ‘I love you’ back, all those years ago?”

If Youngho had been truly taken aback by the abruptness of the question, he didn’t show it. Instead, he set the phone down on the end table closest to him and rested his newly freed hand on Taeil’s ankles, which were crossed and resting on his jean-clad thigh. “That’s a pretty loaded question. How long have you been sitting on that one?”

“Not important,” Taeil responded gently with a teasing smile. “Just answer me.”

Youngho sighed as the corner of his mouth turned upward in a small smile he could barely conceal. “We might still be together, yeah. Or we would have remained together long enough for you to get tired of my inability to compromise, or my failure to pick up after myself - “

“Hey, you’ve gotten way better about both of those things,” Taeil interjected firmly with a point of his finger.

“And you’ve gotten way better at accepting and returning affection. You’ve told me that you love me hundreds of times since we broke up. What I’m saying, though, is that while that one thing might have been part of the reason we didn't work, but it wasn't the sole reason,” Youngho maintained careful eye contact during that last sentence, wanting to make sure his words weren’t easily brushed off. “I was too young then to realize that you had a different way of showing how much you cared, like making sure I ate breakfast every morning or leaving the key to your dorm room under the plant for me so that I could nap between classes. I was only interested in my way of expressing things, which isn’t exactly fair. I was just as much a part of the problem.”

They’d never discussed their break-up in real depth like this before. Taeil didn’t know just how much he needed to hear Youngho’s measured perspective. He’d always blamed himself for their downfall, and perhaps that was why he was much more insistent on showing his affection to Youngho more than anyone else in adulthood, like he was making up for lost time. Youngho never directly held him to that standard, but it was something that Taeil quietly felt he owed to him.

“We’re way better people now,” Taeil concluded softly. “Well, maybe better is a little unfair. We were young. We’re _grown_ now.”

“We have a way better handle on relationships now, yeah,” Youngho agreed, matching Taeil’s soft tone. “If we had met now, we’d have probably stood a better chance.”

The possibility hung in the air between them as they wordlessly stared on. Taeil would be lying if he said that he didn’t think about how they’d fare now as a couple while they shared their weekly meal, or washed the dishes together.

He thought about it often, actually.

And lately Taeil had found himself reminiscing, which made things even more difficult. He’d kissed plenty of men since they broke up. He even came close to loving Jackson before their split.

Still. _Nobody_ kissed like Seo Youngho. Not even on their best day.

It wasn’t just the the feel of his plush lips or the way he wielded his tongue with the precision of a true artist. It was the way Youngho let his hands gently latch onto Taeil’s jaw, how he would breathe him in as if he wanted to experience Taeil with as many of his senses as possible. Youngho kissed like he was prepared to rearrange your entire notion of true bliss. For Taeil, he succeeded in that mission every single time.

He also had this way of touching Taeil just right, either gently scratching the base of his neck or kneading the small of his back. He’d taken the time to silently learn what he liked and committed it to memory. Though he was too naive to realize it then, he later understood the value of learning your partner’s ins and outs.

With how much they’d both grown over the years, Taeil was more than curious to know if Youngho had somehow improved in those areas as well. He wanted to know firsthand.

In fact, the more he thought about it, he wanted to get to know Youngho in that sense all over again. He valued their friendship more than anything, but to pretend not to want more was beginning to feel like a spectacular waste of time.

“I think I fixed your bio,” Youngho finally spoke up, jogging Taeil out of his line of thought. When he refocused, he noticed the phone was back in Youngho’s hand. “For the last time, I hope. Heh.”

Taeil reclaimed his device once more and read the tidied sentence back to its author. “‘Enjoys spending treasured quality time with the people who matter most.’ Admittedly, that does sound better,” he conceded, though he did nothing to filter the sound of disappointment out of his tone. He noticed that the default picture had been changed to a more recent selfie, one that showed off more of his new undercut and a softer smile. “And thank you for changing the picture. I forgot about this one.”

“It’s my favorite one of you," he said, once again sounding far away. "Trust me, you’ll have all the men lining up around the block. You’re welcome.”

“Well, hold off on that for a minute. I’m about to make a quick change," Taeil advised, then quickly added, "Don’t worry, I’m not writing anything. I’ve learned."

Youngho’s eyebrows dipped with concern. “Then what are you doing?”

Taeil shrugged. “Just changing the parameters in my settings. A ha. Better.”

“Show me.”

Taeil flipped the phone around so the screen was facing Youngho. It took only a second for him to catch the adjustment, and his eyes were wider than saucers. “Taeil, you changed your preferred radius to one mile?! I didn’t even know that was a possibility!”

“Well, it is.” Taeil hit save and returned to the main menu. “I like ‘em close.”

Emitting a laugh of disbelief, Youngho said, “Okay, so you know we essentially live in the middle of nowhere, right? Our building is pretty much the only place within five miles that isn’t overflowing with elders. One mile is way too restrictive, Tae.”

Taeil ignored his concerns while he began swiping through the collection of users.“Do you still have your Datr profile up, Youngho?”

Squinting with unmasked suspicion, Youngho replied, “I still have a gently used account, yes.”

“Mm.” Taeil continued to swipe to the left furiously, barely registering the flurry of men. Deny, deny, denydenydeny. He almost blazed right through the twenty-third man until he took notice of his floppy auburn hair and a smile that rivaled the sun.

“So,” Taeil huffed. “I’m thinking I found a guy that I wouldn’t mind swiping to the right. I don’t know, what do you think?”

He turned the phone around once more for Youngho to examine the profile in question: his own.

Youngho froze, and Taeil waited for his eventual reaction, which he hoped wasn’t the beginning of their second end.

“Tae -”

“I mean, he seems to have the whole package,” Taeil soldiered on, battling his nerves to the best of his ability. “He’s beautiful, educated, seems to have a sense of humor, adores his mom. I mean, I’m failing to find something that wouldn’t attract me to him, to be honest. I bet he’s a million times better offline, too.” They made long, intense eye contact before Taeil asked again,”What do you think?”

Youngho continued to look at Taeil while still firmly holding his ankles. His expression was unreadable. Taeil couldn’t remember the last time he couldn’t decipher Youngho with as little as a quirk of his lip. It scared him, and he was thinking of blurting “just kidding” in an attempt to save face. He’d already said way too much, but he could try.

Youngho cleared his throat. "Well, he is pretty handsome."

"Beautiful," Taeil corrected, his gaze steady.

“I dunno...he looks like the kind of guy to drag you out of your apartment and make you go to salsa lessons against your will.”

It took a second for Taeil to understand, but then he laughed at what seemed to be a recall of something Youngho actually did two weeks prior. They had traded in a night out for a dance class Youngho had heard about at his office. Grumbling, Taeil allowed Youngho to convince him to go. He didn’t admit until later over dinner that he had actually had a lot of fun.

“Yeah, or blast Daft Punk early in the morning,” Taeil added.

“Hey, cool people shower to Daft Punk. Don’t hate.”

Taeil sat up, bring them just a little closer. “Well, if those are his biggest transgressions, I think I could handle that.”

“Mm.” Youngho scooted a little closer, keeping Taeil’s legs over his thighs. “Well, he might also be the type to leave dishes overnight, or get way too excited about holidays.”

“Funnily enough, I don’t mind those things as much anymore,” Taeil shrugged with a small, reflective smile. “Actually, I find it really cute. Remember how you pouted until I agreed to wear the Santa hat to work?”

Youngho grinned widely. “Yeah. I was especially insufferable that day.”

“You were. I loved every second of it.”

Then, Youngho placed a hand over the one Taeil was using to hold the phone, angling the screen towards him once more. He let his hand rest there, grazing his thumb over Taeil’s fingers. “I bet a first date with him would involve a lot of in-depth talking.”

“Probably,” Taeil whispered.

“And that’s okay?”

“I think it would be necessary.”

“Me too.”

“But I _want_ to have that talk.”

Youngho appeared to be thinking for a moment, then he nodded. “Me too.”

They gazed at each other quietly for a minute that felt like actual hours. Taeil knew that he should move, but he wanted to enjoy this silent space for just a little longer. It was nice to be able to understand Youngho’s facial expressions again, especially when his face displayed an unrestrained softness. He may have looked at him like that at one point in their lives, but it certainly felt like the first.

“Um,” Youngo grunted, his voice sounded a little thicker. “I think you should go ahead and swipe. Let him know you’re interested.”

A slow smiled stretched across Taeil’s face, then he looked down at the hand that was both holding the phone and being held by the only man he ever truly cared about. After a second , he swiped right on Datr Youngho’s smiling face.

Almost immediately, Youngho’s phone sounded with a cartoonishly melodic notification. They both laughed.

“Should you check that?” Taeil’s eyes were already on Youngho’s lips, betraying any attempt to actually care about anything else. Youngho, thankfully, was on the same page.

“Later,” he murmured as he pried Taeil’s phone out of his hand and set it next him once more. Then, he pulled Taeil into his lap so fluidly that it didn’t feel like they were nearly seven years out of practice at all. As Taeil settled, Youngho wrapped his arms around his waist. “Much later.”

Taeil refused to wait a second more, dipping his head until their lips crashed. Before long, Taeil had concluded that Youngho, against all conceivable odds, could kiss even better than he remembered. And the combination of Youngho’s throaty moan and his hand wandering underneath his sweater nearly ended him.

This. This is yet another brand new definition of bliss.

When they pulled apart, Youngho moved his hand to hover over Taeil's jaw before placing a tiny kiss on his chin. "I missed you, Tae. I did." 

"I missed _you_."

That night they talked, then kissed, then talked some more, then kissed until kissing was no longer enough.

The next morning, as the sun crept through Youngho’s bedroom curtains, they quietly planned the rest of their day between kisses. Taeil would make them an elaborate breakfast, and Youngho would help him with the dishes.

But first, they had a couple of profiles to delete.

**Author's Note:**

> *Drinks her coffee and sways to "Angel"*


End file.
